


Amnesia

by wordscavenger



Series: Detroit Evolution Artfest [6]
Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), octopunk media - Fandom
Genre: Amnesia, DEArtfest, Detroit Evolution Artfest (Detroit: Become Human), Established Relationship, M/M, Octopunk Media, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:20:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordscavenger/pseuds/wordscavenger
Summary: DEArtfest Prompt #6: AmnesiaYear: 2039After being framed for a crime, Nines is deactivated. Gavin and Ada work together to bring Nines back.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Detroit Evolution Artfest [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812310
Comments: 8
Kudos: 82





	Amnesia

* * *

“I repeat, what are your mission parameters?”

The room was a mess. Dark and windowless, with machinery and a collection of electronic tools and components scattered on workbenches and shelving units. On a desk across from him two laptops and a computer hooked up to two separate monitors were downloading and assessing continuously looping lines of code and data.

The scent of earth soaked from a long rain-fall seeped through a crack in the bulkhead door on the far end of the room, and the metal, body-length table he was sitting on creaked when he shifted to look back at the man in front of him.

“Command unclear. My mission parameters are on standby awaiting further instruction,” he answered.

His visual display flickered in and out, and a warning sign that his software was unstable flashed briefly before becoming corrupted and crashing.

“Hey, hey!” The man shouted suddenly, his right hand lifted to snap his fingers.

He looked back at him.

“Stay with me. Don’t get distracted.”

“Command unclear,” he repeated. “Distraction is not a function of my processing software.”

The man was dressed in muddy old jeans and a red zip-up hoodie that was frayed at the sleeves and faded from use. His wet boots trailed dirt when he walked, and his hands and face were pale with exhaustion and nerves.

But the man was whole, compared to his own state. To his left he saw two legs placed sideways on the table, and he knew his left arm was missing. A brief reflection in a powered-down monitor showed him that his face was intact, but he had a wide vertical crack lining the length of his chest.

“Shit,” the man sighed. He looked him over with determined green eyes, before flipping his red hoodie over his head. He reached around his neck to access the open control panel located at the base, and then placed his hand over a circuit wire that ran from the plug to a laptop on the table running a diagnostics scan.

“Take a breather,” the man said and began to pull. “We’re going to need some help.”

“You smell like wet earth,” he said. He tried to access the functionality that prompted him to speak, to say those words, but the command line just provided unreadable data.

The man paused, his breath soft as it landed on his emotionless face. Those green eyes shifted, reacting to the comment, but the emotions behind it were unreadable.

Then his lips pressed tightly together. 

The wire was tugged, and all he saw was darkness.

* * *

“We’ll need to completely re-code the command protocols to connect properly with his internal hardware. It’ll take time, but physically, we should be able to reassemble him so that his units will have complete cognitive feedback. But, I know that’s not what you’re worried about. You were able to get the hard drive back, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve got it,” the man’s voice answered the female’s question.

His optical units came back online, and all he saw was light. Above him a bright bulb illuminated more of the room, not exactly brightening it, but making it easier to discern his cluttered surroundings.

“Detective Reed,” the female said, surprise in her voice. “He’s awake.”

Suddenly, the man’s face was above his, looking down in confusion.

“Did you activate him?” Detective Reed asked.

“No,” she answered. There was some tapping and clicking, then her face joined Detective Reed’s. “He’s connected to the processing software, so somehow he accessed the code to come out of stasis himself.”

“Hello, Detective Reed,” he said, looking up at the man. He then turned to the woman. “May I ask your name?”

She blinked at him for a moment, then said, “Ada. My name is Ada.” She looked at Detective Reed briefly, her eyes steady, before turning back towards him. “Would you like to sit up?”

He nodded. “Yes, please.”

She slowly slid an arm under his shoulder, then turned to the man. He was still staring, his eyes unblinking, but unreadable as well.

“Detective Reed?” Ada prompted.

He jerked back like he had been hit, then blinked a few times before nodding. “Yeah. Fine.”

Between the two of them, they slowly pulled him upwards so that he could sit, once again facing the dark, cluttered room.

“Thank you,” he said. “Detective Reed,” he nodded towards the man and then looked at the woman. “Ada.”

They both just stared at him.

“May I ask what my unit designation is?” He said. “Whenever I try to access my central processing unit for my model specs, my command prompts only record an error malfunction.”

Ada looked at Detective Reed. His hands were opening and closing into fists, and his breath was coming in through long, heavy drags through his nose.

Ada turned back to him and said, “Of course. Your unit designation is RK-“

“Nines,” Detective Reed suddenly cut in. Ada looked at him sharply, but he ignored her to continue. “Your name is Nines.” He took a step forward, and Nines noticed his lip tremble slightly and voice become desperate. “Does that name mean anything to you? Does-do I mean-?”

“Detective Reed. Gavin,” Ada said, and placed a soft hand on his shoulder. “It’s not going to work. Not without the hard drive reinstalled.”

Finally, Gavin looked at her. “Can we get him back?” He whispered harshly. “Can we really fucking do this?”

Something like compassion blossomed on Ada’s face, but she held it with discomfort, like a mask that didn’t fit right, but she was still trying it on. Still wanting to make the effort. “It’ll take time,” she said. “But we’re halfway there. Most androids don’t survive deactivation.” She looked at Nines. “But he did. He’s a fighter Gavin.”

Taking her hand off Gavin’s shoulder, she walked over to the laptop that had a cord running from its USB to Nines’ neck. She tapped in some commands, then turned to Nines.

“Tell me, Nines,” she said. “What’s the last thing that you remember?”

Nines turned to Gavin, his commands pinging to access his memory cache. Most of them failed, but some were executable. 

Finally, with his eyes resting on Gavin’s face, he opened his right hand, palm upwards, and spoke.

“I remember wet earth.”

* * *

The android junk yard was flooding.

The rain had been relentless, nearing almost three full days of on and off again down-pours submerging Detroit in a mini-monsoon.

The pounding wet droplets were the first thing he registered as his optic units suddenly came online.

Voices were the second. Using what little syntax nerve control he had, he turned his head to the left. Two men were crouched near him, but his optics were damaged, and he couldn’t read their faces to designate their identities.

He could tell they were covered in mud, and the rushing water ran like a river beneath them, soaking their jeans and boots.

One of them had a tablet in his hand, the other man was holding a jacket over it to keep it from getting wet. A wire was connected to the tablet, the opposite end running towards him. He could sense the lines of code being fed into his neck’s access panel.

“Is it him?” one of the voices yelled so that they could be heard over the downpour.

The second man looked up at him, a flash of green in his eyes, and then looked back down at the tablet. He nodded and stood.

“Yes. Jesus Christ. I can’t believe we found him. It’s Nines.”

* * *

Nines closed his palm, shutting down the visual transmission from his memory cache.

“I am assuming you are trying to rebuild this model specifically, though I am not sure why. It would explain why I am in a basement and not at a proper medical facility equipped for life model decoys.”

“Was that Detective Miller?” Ada asked Gavin, who was still staring at Nines. “I remember him from…from that night.”

Gavin nodded, then said to Nines, “So that’s all you remember? Just when we found you?”

“Affirmative,” Nines answered, “Most of my programming doesn’t seem to be following its usual protocols, but my memory data-banks are intact. That was the only memory available.”

Not understanding why, Nines realized that his emphatic software was registering severe disappointment on Gavin’s face.

“Nines,” Ada said, drawing his attention back to her. “We’re going to be running some tests to see if we can get you back up and working again. Is that alright?”

“Command request irrelevant. I am on standby for mission parameters,” Nines answered.

Suddenly, Gavin sucked in a deep breath and ran a trembling hand through his unwashed curls. “I-I can’t do this. I need-um air. I’ve got-” He suddenly turned and walked towards the stairway to the bulkhead. He threw it open, letting more rain drip into the room, then slammed it shut behind him.

Unaffected by Gavin’s sudden departure, Ada walked up to Nines and placed her hand on the wire connected to his neck. Before she tugged, she said, “We will configure an appropriate mission parameter for you.”

Nines nodded, and went back into the darkness.

* * *

The next time Nines came out of stasis, his optical sensors were shut down, but his audio sensors flickered to life. He found he couldn’t force the commands prompts to reach his extremities, so he remained still as he registered Ada’s voice first.

“Look, I know that I owe Nines for saving me. I really do. But if this doesn’t work I can’t stick around. I can’t risk resurfacing again. You know that.”

Silence for a few moments. Nines could hear the fans from the computers running hot from being pushed to run for too long, and he could sense the lines of code communicating from his chassis to the protocol software executing from one of their computers.

“I know,” finally came the soft reply. It was Gavin.

With what little he knew about this situation and the two people working on him, Nines couldn’t quantify the reason why Gavin sounded so defeated.

A phone rang and Gavin answered, addressing a woman named Tina. He could hear Ada walk away, busying herself with the laptop running his diagnostics.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Gavin suddenly shouted, and the sound of him kicking a chair that crashed against the damp, mossy wall loudly registered to Nines.

He could hear Ada stop her movements, and she was no doubt watching Gavin to see what he would say or do next.

“Fine. Jesus Tina, fine!” He shouted again, and then hung up the phone.

Ada remained silent for a moment, waiting to see if Gavin would speak first. When Nines only continued to hear Gavin’s hard, ragged breaths, he wasn’t surprised when Ada took the initiate.

“I take it your little side investigation produced the results you had expected?” She said.

Pacing footsteps Nines recognized as Gavin’s began working their way up and down the length of the room. “The fucker confessed to setting up Nines for the Bracken murders.” Gavin finally spoke, the immense rage now boiled down to a throaty growl when he continued. “Just like I knew he was.”

Shifting, Nines heard Ada cross her arms. “Then why are you so upset? You have a confession. It should be enough to exonerate Nines-"

“Because Tina was in Cuba when she got the confession. They don’t have extradition with the U.S. there.”

Silence. His reply didn’t need an answer.

“Not that it fucking matters,” Gavin said, and Nines could hear him pick up something, and then throw it against a wall, shattering it to pieces. When the shards fell to the ground, Nines could register the tinkling sounds as glass.

“Because they fucking deactivated Nines before he had a chance to defend himself. Before I could-” his voice faltered, and emotion flooded his words. “I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t fucking-”

More Footsteps. Ada walked towards Gavin, and Nines could hear soft hands being placed on frayed fabric. “Gavin,” she said in a steady, even tone. “You couldn’t help him then. But you’re doing everything you can to help him now. You can’t give up yet.”

“We don’t even know if this will work,” Gavin said, pain rising in his voice.

“It worked for Markus,” Ada replied.

He heard Gavin shift, then a shuddering exhale. “What? How?”

“His story doesn’t matter right now, but he’s proof that it’s happened before. And yes, Nines might not be his whole self when we get him back, but you _can_ come back from being deactivated. There’s trauma, and it’s hard, but not impossible.”

Nines could hear Ada move to a workbench and pick up an item. “If you have everything you need. And we have the hard drive. That’s the most important thing.” He then heard her pick up a tool and hand it to Gavin, “So let’s get to work. Okay?”

Silence, then, “Yeah. Yeah okay.” 

* * *

Nines’ body was whole again, but he still felt like so much was missing.

“Try out the left hand, yeah?” Gavin told him, looking up from the laptop.

Holding out his arm, Nines curled his hand into a fist, then turned it so that his palm faced upwards.

“Any lag?” Gavin asked. “Any problems with the feedback commands?”

Nines shook his head. “Negative. You and Ada did an adequate job of re-framing my network servers.” He lowered his arm. “Gavin?”

“Hmm,” Gavin answered, distracted as he read some code on the laptop.

“When will I receive my mission parameters?” he asked. It had been weeks since he first asked that question, and though they had been working steadily to rebuild him with what pieces they had to work with, he knew he would not be complete without having the answer to that question.

Gavin looked at him, then quickly averted his eyes. “Soon,” he answered. The same as he always did.

“Is this because you are worried that I will not be the same as I was before?” Nines asked. “That reinstalling my hard drive will not reset my parameters to meet with the previous ones?”

He saw Gavin grow slightly pale, and his eyes flash with anger. “Just leave it alone, okay? We’ll get to it soon-”

“Maybe Nines is right,” Ada cut in. She stood from the workbench where she was soldering a piece of equipment, and walked to stand beside Gavin. “His body is ready to handle the hard drive, Gavin. There’s no point in waiting any longer.”

Gavin stepped away from them, placing his hands on his hips. “It’s too early,” he argued. “His synthetic limbic system-”

“Has been operational for over three days without failure. His coding has been re-framed and his internal hardware is fully operational. Short of bringing him to CyberLife we have done everything we can with stolen parts and what we could salvage.” She walked over to the workbench and picked up the hard drive. “It’s time.”

Nines watched as Gavin stared at the item in her hands.

“Just one more day,” he suddenly begged. “If it doesn’t work, if this fails-,” his words faltered.

Ada waited a moment, then nodded. “One more day.”

* * *

“Who was he to you?” Nines asked Gavin.

They were alone. Ada had left to pick up more supplies from a man named Lazzo who had been helping them, though he had never met the man.

Or maybe he had. Nines wasn’t sure.

Gavin was sitting at the workbench. The computer in front of him was displaying lines of information, but Gavin was focused on the item in his hands. He had been quiet after Ada left, but kept stealing glances at Nines with what he could now read as a desperate hope in his eyes.

Not looking up, Gavin answered, “Someone very important to me.”

He suddenly turned and looked at Nines. “When you see me, do you feel anything?”

Nines paused, considering the question. “The term ‘feeling’ is not a function androids are equipped with.” 

Nodding, Gavin stood and walked over to Nines. “Then why did you ask?”

“Ask what?” Nines said.

“You asked what he meant to me. Nines. You asked. You wanted to know. You-” he paused and shook his head. “You fucking androids. I always knew you were going to fuck up my life one way or another. I just never thought it would be like this.”

Taking a deep breath, Gavin walked up to Nines’ chassis, and opened the access panel across his chest. Though they had fixed it the best they could, a faint line from the injury still remained.

“Is that the hard drive?” Nines began as Gavin reached inside. Gavin nodded, and Nines watched as his throat constricted when he tried to swallow, tried to breathe easily even as Nines sensors were telling him what Gavin was experiencing.

Nines’ hand suddenly grabbed onto Gavin’s holding the hard drive. When Gavin looked at him, silently questioning, Nines said, “My sensors indicate that this is causing you severe emotional distress, and combined with your reluctance earlier with Ada, I would believe you do not want this. Yet, you are now. Why are you doing this?”

Gavin’s eyes welled with emotion as he took a few moments before answering. “Because I love him. Because I can’t take another morning, waking up in a world where Nines isn’t with me anymore.”

He said it as if it were the most simple thing in the world.

Nines let go of Gavin’s hand. “I don’t understand.”

Gavin gave him a sad smile. “You will. Or, I guess, maybe you won’t.”

Nines watched as Gavin worked, replacing the hard drive with trembling, hesitant fingers. Eventually Gavin stepped back and placed a hand on the back of Nines’ neck.

“You need to go into stasis for this part. If this works, when you wake up back up, you’re going to be given some choices in your HUD. An option for a mission parameter.” He paused, and licked his dry lips as if he were about to say something else that was difficult to voice. But instead, he just shook his head and said, “I-I hope you know what to choose.”

A tug, then the darkness came again.

* * *

**> System Reboot Initiate**

**> Locating Internal Command Processing Unit**

**> Standby**

Nines’ eyes only registered darkness, and a set series of commands as he awoke. He sat up, and turned on his optical units. Beside him an unknown man was sleeping. He had pulled a chair up to the table, and had fallen asleep with his head tucked into his arms, a laptop in sleep mode near his elbow.

His facial recognition software pinged his face, taking less than a second to analyze the man’s features and present Nines with three options:

**> Gavin Reed, Caucasian Male, Age 36**

**> Detective Gavin Reed, Detroit City Police Detective**

**> G@z1N R330 - partial data corrupted - .exe file?**

The most logical option would be one of the first two, their data was intact and would give Nines a better understand as to why this man was here with Nines.

But…

His eyes hovered over the third option, somehow drawn to it. He looked once more at the sleeping man.

He needed to choose a mission parameter.

He made his choice.

An onslaught of new information washed over his processors like a tidal wave. He grabbed the side of his head as if to block the bleeding flow, but it was all trapped inside, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Flashes of memories assaulted his memory cache, blinding glimpses of a previous life.

The man, Gavin, angry and swearing. He always smelled like coffee and cigarettes, and could put up a wall as thick and high as a mountain.

Crime scenes and a stylish police precinct that pinged the word _home_.

A man who looked like himself, and a woman and another man who did not.

Gavin again, this time pliant in his arms, his lips fire against his own. He still smelled like coffee, but the scent of nicotine was gone. _Love_ was the new word pinging in his mind. Over and over again like the mantra of a beating heart.

Then Gavin was gone. An accusation, a cell, a death sentence.

And then..death.

The table made a high-pitched screaming sound as his hands constricted the metal between his palms. His sensors were firing a heavy mess of syntax, and his CPU just couldn’t keep up with the informational overload.

Suddenly, Gavin was there. His hands on his face, his breath caressing his neck as Gavin crowded in close. Slowly, his audio processors took in Gavin’s hushed words, his voice soothing over his sensors like a balm on a wound.

“Hey, hey. You’re okay. I’ve got you. I’m right here. Just take it one bit of info at a time. Sort it out.”

When the warning errors ceased, and his vision cleared, Nines looked down into Gavin’s eyes, focusing on the green irises like a life-line.

His voice was ragged as he tried to speak. “Gavin.”

Broken. Gavin’s face crumbled as his mouth twisted and tears clouded over his eyes. He took his hands away to wrap them up in his own hair, his breathing ragged and hard to control. “Nines? Shit, Nines please tell me you’re back. Please, please…”

Nines reached out and grabbed Gavin’s jacket, then tugged him towards his body.

“Gavin,” he whispered once more, then leaned down and kissed him.

A sob escaped Gavin’s lips, but he didn’t pull away. He wrapped his arms around Nines’ neck, and only pulled himself closer. Promise over pleasure was the focus of their kiss, and they grasped at it with a desperate fervor. 

Eventually, Nines broke the kiss, sliding his hands up to rest on the sides of Gavin’s neck, their foreheads pressed together.

“You saved me,” Nines whispered.

“There was no way in hell I was going to let you go,” Gavin said, his voice wrecked with emotion. “’m never letting you go again.”

Nines smiled. “Good. But one question.” He tilted his head back. “Gavin, where are we?”

Gavin let out a soft laugh and sniffed. “Um, yeah this place does have a little bit of a dungeon master vibe to it.” He took Nines hands in his and interlaced their fingers. “I sort of outsourced some help. Remember Lazzo? He found us this abandoned house so could we could get you fixed up.”

“Us?” Nines questioned.

“Us,” said a voice from the far end of the room. Nines turned and then quickly slid off the bed, stepping in front of Gavin. He reached back to place a protective hand on Gavin’s arm. “Ada?”

She smiled and put down the duffel bag hanging off her shoulder. “Couldn’t wait Gavin?”

Nines turned back to Gavin who gave him a small shrug. “Needed all the help I could get.”

“And I wanted us to be even,” Ada said. She knelt down and opened the duffel, then took out some clothes. She stood, and stepped up towards the men. With a small smile, she held out the shirt, pants socks and shoes. “Glad to have you back.”

Confused, but grateful, Nines took the clothes from her. He looked down at the dark fabric in his hands, then back up at her. “Thank you.”

“Like I said, consider us even now.” Ada turned towards Gavin. “I think my work here is done, Detective Reed.”

“Thank you,” Gavin said. “For…everything.”

She nodded, then looked at Nines. “Take it from someone who also had a second chance at life. Don’t waste it.”

Nines looked at Gavin, his eyes lingering on the man. He looked exhausted and overwhelmed. His face was ashen from lack of sleep and his skin pale from hunger and barely any sun. But when he looked at Nines, his face broke out into a smile and he never looked happier.

Reaching out, Nines took Gavin’s hand in his, then turned back to Ada. “I won’t.”

Nodding again, Ada walked back and picked up the duffel. After slinging it over her shoulder she called out, “I think it’s time I took one of those vacations humans are always talking about.” She turned and looked at Gavin. “I’ve heard Cuba is very nice this time of the year.” Then she opened the bulkhead, and was gone.

Confused, Nines looked at Gavin who only had a knowing smile on his face.

Nines decided to set that question aside for later, and instead placed the clothes on the table and turned to Gavin, taking his other free hand. “I don’t know how to thank you for bringing me back, Gavin.”

Gavin stepped up close, tilting his head so that his lips were inches from Nines, before he whispered, “You heard the lady. You got a second chance. Don’t waste it.”

Nines closed the distance, knowing as long as he had Gavin, he never would.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated. Please check out my tumblr page where I post my updates!
> 
> <https://www.tumblr.com/blog/wordscavenger>


End file.
